Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Keaon the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too…depending upon weather conditions. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui. Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific– Here’s the latest weather information coming out of theNational Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here. The 2012 hurricane season is over in the eastern and central Pacific…resuming on May 15th and June 1st 2013.

Aloha Paragraphs

Clear to partly cloudy mornings, cloudy around
the mountains during the afternoons…just a few
showers here and there

Generally light breezes…stronger in a few places. We currently have a near 1030 millibar high pressure system (weather map), located over the ocean to the northeast of Hawaii, with an associated ridge extending westward…offshore just to the north of Kauai. Meanwhile, we find low pressure systems to our northwest, with an associated cold front approaching. Here's a satellite image, showing the persistent high clouds shifting eastward, although with a new area of high cirrus approaching from the west and northwest. There are very few lower level clouds over or around the islands at the time of this writing…which should disappear during the night for the most part.

Volcanic haze will continue in places through Friday. The winds are light in many areas, although have been gusty in others, generally from the southeast. An example of this gusty nature was a 36 mph gust, which occurred on the small island of Kahoolawe this evening. Where the winds are lighter, we'll find daytime onshore sea breezes, and offshore flowing land breezes at night…bring cool air to the coasts Friday morning. This light wind regime will lead to clouds forming over and around the mountains during the afternoon hours, although with not many showers falling.

The next cold front is approaching from the northwest…although will stall to our west this weekend. The location of this next front will keep our islands in a southeast to easterly wind flow, keeping that volcanic haze over parts of the state. The cold front may push down into the state, or by to our north after the weekend. This in turn could bring a wet pattern for the western islands of Kauai and Oahu, particularly along the windward coasts and slopes. It now looks like the trade winds may finally try to move back over us by Tuesday…helping to ventilate our hazy skies then. We may even see a brief appearance of the trades on Saturday coming up as well, although southeast breezes return already by Sunday and Monday.~~~ As things are changing so quickly now, we'll find frequent updates to the outlook, so hang loose with those longer range weather outlooks. I'll be back early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you're spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Western Pacific Ocean: Typhoon Bopha (26W) remains active in the South China Sea…located approximately 280 NM west of Manila, Philippines. Sustained winds have doubled overnight to 110 knots, with gusts to near 135 knots! Bopha will increase in strengthen to 125 knots, with gusts to near 150 knots during the next 12 hours. Here's the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image. Here's morphed integrated microwave imagery from CIMSS…as Bopha moves through the southern Philippine Islands into the South China Sea.

South Pacific Ocean:There are no active tropical cyclones

North and South Indian Oceans:Tropical cyclone Claudia (03S) remains active in the South Indian Ocean…located approximately 445 NM south-southwest of Diego Garcia. Sustained winds are at 45 knots, with gusts to near 55 knots. 03S will increase in strength going forward…becoming a typhoon within 36 hours. Here's the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image.

Interesting: Even though Hurricane Sandy helped create wet start to the month for several states, November 2012 went into the record books as the second-driest November since 1895 in the Northeast. With an average of 1.04 inches or precipitation, the region received only 27 percent of its normal level. The record driest November was 1917 when the Northeast received only 0.88 inches of precipitation.

All states were drier than average. Departures ranged from 16 percent of normal in Connecticut, their second-driest November, to 37 percent of normal in New Jersey, their 11th driest. Of the remaining states, New Hampshire, Vermont and West Virginia had their second-driest November; Delaware, Maine, Maryland and New York had their third driest.

Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Massachusetts also ranked in the top 10 driest Novembers. Overall for autumn, the Northeast was slightly drier than average with 11.36 inches of precipitation (98 percent of normal). The region was split down the middle with half of the states drier and half the states wetter than normal. Connecticut took the title of driest state with only 78 percent of normal, while Delaware led the wet states with 120 percent of normal.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, issued November 27, indicated abnormal dryness continued in upstate New York while a new area of abnormal dryness popped up near the Vermont-New Hampshire border and in central-southern West Virginia. In addition to being dry, the Northeast was cooler than normal for November — in spite of a brief mind-month warmup. With an average temperature of 37.2 degrees, it was 2.5 degrees cooler than normal and was the coolest November since 1997.

All states reported below average temperatures for the first time since October 2009. West Virginia and Maine were the coolest at 4.1 degrees below average. Departures for the rest of the states ranged from 4 degrees below normal in New Jersey to 0.9 degrees below normal in Vermont. Autumn's overall average temperature of 50 degrees was average for November in the Northeast. West Virginia was the coolest at 1.6 degrees below average for the season. Of the warm states, Vermont was the warmest at 1.1 degrees above average.